Method and system for distance based video advertisement reward system with instant dynamic price generation for digital media propagation

ABSTRACT

Asynchronous data exchange between an enhance digital signage unit and user guided digital content management system which charges external advertisers with appropriate pricing and payment system based of duration of length of digital data media, distance of digital information content being exposed from a center point of a business entity, time of day, frequency of the digital information content is being repeated in a period of time and number of business agents within a selected distance chosen by the external advertiser. A fraction of the charges are rewarded to business agents that participated in the advertising network. Each digital information content is linked to the internal database of the digital content management system with a unique marketing phrase or short recognizable word combination to assist prospective consumers in referencing to the origin of the product or services ultimately back to the external advertisers.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. Nonprovisional applicationSer. No. 14/214,892, filed on Mar. 15, 2014, which claims the benefit ofpriority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/802,095, entitled “BackSearchable Video Advertisement System with Sensor Enabled DigitalSignage,” filed on Mar. 15, 2013, the entire contents of both of whichare incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

Digital signage system are systems that transmit digital videoinformation to targeted digital signage display hardware which also mayinclude text or characters information. These digital video systems aremade in a form of an advertisement, to allow potential customers torecognize and get awareness of a product or service. The digital signagedisplay hardware is designed to be installed in a common public area,especially in brick and mortar shops or physical business premises. Thevideo advertising content can be stored on a memory media or transmittedfrom a management server system that communicates with the digitalsignage unit via utilizing the internet technology.

Many factors do contribute to the effectiveness of such advertisements,predominantly the location, time of day, and people viewing theseadvertisement. Video advertisements are linear two dimensional media,which means when a video advertisements is being played as time passes,there is a limited chance of an audience to view such an advertisement.Most often, after an advertisement was played, a potential customer oraudience may not remember the key points of what they had seen. Withoutproper mechanism to allow the information relayed to be remembered, thismay defeat the purpose of an advertisement hence making theadvertisement less effective.

In reference to a typical prior art system, in FIG. 1, a business ownermay choose to use a localize digital signage system 102, whichnecessitate the business owner to perform regular maintenance inmanaging the digital content or advertisements that are being displayedonto their own digital signage device. This is shown at businesssubscriber 110 and digital signage unit 112. This can be cumbersome, andmay involve hiring a small marketing team in managing the localizecontent of the digital signage ultimately increasing cost and time.Without scheduled or regular maintenance of getting fresh advertisementor information content, the information displayed on a digital signagedevice may become stale, which in the long run may discourage audiencein viewing the information display, again defeating the purpose ofadvertising.

A lesser cumbersome method is by utilizing a cloud digital signagesystem 104. When a business owner 114 decides to advertise through sucha system, he or she may contact the advertisement department of thethird party company that is running the digital signage cloud services104. However, the process of finalizing the advertisement propagationmay not be as easy as an autonomous solution. One important factor isfinalizing the actual price of advertising a content, which maybedependent on the space, time, and location of the digital signage unit.The hassle of acquiring a price of that particular advertisement has tobe calculated by the advertising department, which is not revealedinstantly. Such progression in order to get an advertisement out to themasses, maybe critical especially when it comes to volatile services orproducts where information is required to be relayed to the public inmore faster fashion, e.g. a store manager decides to run an additional 2hour aggressive sale at the very last minute, in order to compete withhis or her neighbor.

Another scenario is the type of targeted audience that the advertisementshould be delivered. Most systems transmit advertisements to any generaldigital signage unit, which maybe loss of resources, since as mentionedbefore digital signage advertisement is limited with the time factor andchances of a patron would see the advertisement maybe affected. Apossible negative scenario; it is not very encouraging to actually see acompetition's advertisement played on a business owner facility digitalsignage hardware, when the purpose of the whole idea of having thedigital signage in the facility is to actually promote the businessowner's business. Without the proper algorithm, advertisements that arenot delivered to their target, cannot generate maximum positive resultsfor the advertisers.

With current prior art method, customers 108 that have visualize theadvertisements from a digital signage have to perform a relative searchof what they have seen on a forth party search engine 106. Veryfrequently such act of searching may result to inaccurate search backsto the original business that was trying to advertise the product orservices. Not all searches yield improper results, but since alldesigned search engine are very key word specific, the results maybeunexpected and unsatisfactory.

SUMMARY

It is necessary for the display of advertisement to be fresh andconstantly updated. It is also important for potential customer toremember what they saw or else it defeats the purpose of theadvertisement or information being displayed. It is also necessary tounderstand that all digital signage are limited to a two dimensionaltime versus advertisement displayed scale. According to this embodiment,a digital signage device can only display a limited amount ofadvertisement a day. The above challenges where the digital signageindustry faces, can be minimized and situation improved upon themethodology and application being presented in this embodiment.

Incidentally, it is essential for potential customers to actuallyrecognize and remember what they have saw on a digital signage device.As the advertisement being played, potential customer maybe confinedwith amount of time, may not have the luxury to view the entire messageof the advertisement, due to the two-dimensional effect of theadvertisement. Another scenario which could be possible is that theadvertisement that is being shown may have too many key or crucialpoints, which ultimately may cause the potential customer to not graspthe entire message of the advertisement.

Within this embodiment, it introduces a scheme or method where it helpsthe potential customer to actually retrieve the advertisement shown. Asimple searchable word, which is described as a recognizable marketingphrase, is linked to each advertisement video that is being played. Thismarketing phrase is fundamentally placed on the same time line as anadvertisement that is being played. These marketing phrase areconstrained to be short simple words or recognizable in the context ofthe spoken language of a society. Upon viewing an advertisement, apotential customer may commit to memory or capture these phrases andeventually searching against these marketing phrases on a referencedsearch engine designed into the system, to retrieve the information oradvertisement seen.

To overcome the day time limitation of amount of advertisement thatcould be displayed per day, is to get more digital signage devices outto the public. However, most business or companies do not have theresources or time dedicated for managing the content of the digitalsignage devices. According to this embodiment, a centralizedadvertisement system can help to transmit all relative externaladvertisement to owners within a targeted distance. This ensures thatthe advertisements are always in a fresh state. In another embodiment,the system presented is designed to provide a fair instant final pricefor each advertisement submitted into the system. Advertisers canimmediately make a payment towards the services, to allow immediatepropagation of the advertisement. When the act of submitting anadvertisement becomes fast and easy, this ensures that the content onevery digital signage unit governed by the embodiment of this system isalways fresh and interesting.

To help increase the number of digital signage, which ultimatelyincreases the information and advertising relay agent, an incentiveshould be given. The embodiment describes an autonomous periodicallymonetary reward payout method as a form of the incentive. These monetaryrewards are taken from the fees charged against an external advertiserthat rents the air time from a business owner which is an agent to thedigital content management system that currently owns one or a pluralityof digital signage units.

Furthermore, according to another embodiment of the described system,the system enables a faster propagation of digital information contentexternally, since external advertisers do not have to interact with thebusiness owners that actually own the digital signage devices. Thiseventually speeds up commerce of a product that an external advertiseris trying to sell.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is an explanatory view showing the configuration of a localizedigital signage system of prior art according to the embodiment;

FIG. 1B is an explanatory view showing the configuration of a cloudbased digital signage system of prior art according to the embodiment;

FIG. 1C is an explanatory view showing the configuration of potentialcustomer searching for information of what they have visualize from adigital signage system according to the embodiment;

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the current digital contentmanagement system diagram showing a management server according to theembodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the digital signage unitafter being bought and setup to access the digital content managementsystem according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the initial setup process of the digitalsignage unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the internal operation of the digitalsignage unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the process where external advertisersinteract with the digital content management system according to theembodiment;

FIG. 6A is a flow chart showing a detailed process of externaladvertisers submitting a digital information content or advertisementinto the digital content management system according to the embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing determination of reward payout processaccording to the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing a process flow of a digital signage unitcompleting daily task according to the embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing a process flow of potential customers tosearch for the product or service according to the embodiment;

FIG. 10 is an explanatory view showing a digital signage unit with therecognizable marketing phrase according to the embodiment;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Hereinafter, utilizing the appended drawings as a guide, the currentsystem will be described in detail. All elements that shall be explainedwill be referenced with a corresponding number and the same number maybe used repeatedly to avoid duplicating similar explanation of the saidelements.

The digital content management system 202 in FIG. 2, is a cloud basedsystem which provides the user the capability to upload and manage theirdigital information content within the system. System 202 was builtusing a combination of programming languages that may consist of PHP,JavaScript, Bash, Pear, Actionscript, html, and Java. The system 202also contains all the business information of each company that hasopted to join the network. Only a legal entity with a legal Employer'sIdentification Number or EIN, (in other terms, a tax ID number) isallowed to join the network. This is to minimize the unethical usage ofthe system for sending in information that maybe unacceptable for thegeneral public. The system 202 is connected via an internet medium orcomputer network, and other users shall utilize similar internet meansto communicate with each other.

System 202 is designed for four main user categories, predominantly thebusiness agent that chooses to purchase the digital signage unit,together with the external business advertisers, 218 who uses the system202 to advertise by uploading their advertisement content. Businessagents can automatically participate in the rewards monetary program forbeing an advertising agent for system 202. On the other hand, externalbusiness advertisers use system 202 to advertise their product andservices. The third user category can be the potential consumers 204that utilizes the search feature to retrieve information of the externalbusiness advertisers, based off what they saw and recalled from anydigital signage units 212, 214 or 216. The final user category is thesystem administrator that consist of a group of people that administer,and filter any inappropriate digital information content before it istransmitted to all the targeted display information digital units of212, 214 and 216. It should be understood that the administrator are asingle business entity that runs and maintains the system 202.

Business agents 206, 208 or 210, purchase their own respective digitalsignage unit, 212, 214 and 216. They are advised to appropriately mountand install their corresponding units 212, 214 and 216 at appropriatelocations on their premises to yield maximum exposure and benefitstowards their businesses as well as external advertisers 218. Businessagents 206 can only manage and control his or her own personal digitalsignage unit 216 and said user is not capable of configuring andmanaging content or behavior of digital signage units of 214 or 212.This is also true for other agents of business user 210 and 208, theyare not able to gain access or control of digital signage unit ofothers. A security feature shall be integrated into the system 202 whichauthenticates all remote digital signage units to not allow otherbusiness agents to control digital signage units of others. The ultimatecontrol point is completed by system 202.

In order to participate as an advertising or information relay agent, abusiness agent, 206, 208 or 210, has to first register his or herbusiness 302 with system 202. During the registration process, thebusiness agent together with the external advertisers, both users haveto enter mandatory data of their respective business name, businessaddress, type of business industry, phone or fax contact, email, andwebsite info (block 304) into system 202. After the businessregistration process is completed, both parties, 218 and 206˜210, canlogin 306 into system 202. If login fails 322, either users are requiredto contact system 202's administrator for login remedial.

Immediately after being logged in, both users, 218 and 206, 208 and 210,are required to select any recognizable marketing phrase 310, whichuniquely identifies the business entity when a potential customer usesthe search feature of system 202. Each business entity may only pick andselect one free recognizable marketing phrase to link their product orservices to the search back feature of system 202. If additionalmarketing phrases were required, they would have to pay a yearlysubscription fee for any additional marketing phrases. An externaladvertiser can immediately begin to upload and manage any digitalinformation content 312.

A business agent 206, 208 and 210 can also be granted access to purchasethe digital signage unit from the web store of system 202, shown inblock 402. Business operations under the system 202 business entity canprocess the purchase and ship the purchased digital signage unit to thebusiness agents. Upon receiving the digital signage unit, the businessagents then activate the digital signage unit via a onetime setupprocess. The 212, 214 and 216 units are powered up from the closestpower source. The digital signage unit, 212, 214 and 216 are connectedto the internet through either wired or wireless connection, whicheveris convenient for the business agent. A business agent can try to gaininternet connection by entering their own network security passkey shownin block 404, if required. If not required, the digital signage unit maythen connect to the internet based of the business agent's networkselection. All selections are touch screen enabled, which may be theonly method a user can communicate with the digital signage unit.

Also during the initial setup of block 404, the business agent enters asecret pass code uniquely generated by system 202. The pass code is arandomly generated pass code unique to each business agents, whichidentifies each digital signage unit during access for advertisementplaylist and configuration information retrieval. All pass codegeneration can be obtained upon the business agents registering thedigital signage unit, which is shown in block 314.

Business agents can then configure or setup the digital signage unitsmentioned in block 316. The registration process of each digital signageunit together with the units corresponding settings or configuration canbe configured via the digital signage unit itself, or via the web basedcontrol management system interface 318 within system 202. Uponcompleting the registration and activation process of each digitalsignage unit, the business agents can begin to upload internaladvertisements or desired digital information content into the localdigital signage unit, depicted in block 320. The business agent has bothoptions to advertise either internally or externally. If the businessagent chooses to advertise as an external advertiser, hence adopting thedual role within system 202.

The digital signage unit 212, 214 and 216 is built in such a way that itis only capable of communicating with the system 202. This creates aclose loop system thus isolating any possible foreign intrusion ofunauthorized digital signage. Such a system allows for increased levelof security, which is vital since according to the embodiment, system202 can involve a lot of monetary transaction. Upon successfulconnection to the internet, the digital signage unit can then try toobtain new playlist and configuration files from system 202, this isdepicted in block 408. When a request to retrieve fresh playlist orconfiguration files is made to system 202, system 202 uses the pass codegenerated from block 314, to determine access of the digital signageunit shown in 410. If request is not authenticated, as shown in block412, then the corresponding unit can be blacklisted, and not be able togain access, until business agent seeks remedial from system 202'sadministrators. Again, this is the security scheme implemented todisable foreign digital signage units into accessing the system 202content. If access is granted, as shown in block 414, then thecorresponding digital signage unit can retrieve the latest playlist aswell as configuration files. The corresponding units may process andcompile a schedule of playtimes which is also dependent on the window ofplaytime available based on the sleep and awake time window of eachdigital signage unit which is depicted in block 416. This sleep andawake behavior is designed to enable the business agent to conserveelectric power, during times, when the business agent determines thattheir business premises are to be closed, hence having no advantage indisplaying any information or advertising exposure towards the public.

Playlist are divided between peak and non-peak hour playlist, peak hourplaylist are valued higher, due to the obvious reasons of higher peopletraffic in a location. In return any peak hour playlist, can also costmore for external advertisers. The appropriate charges are based off adefined pricing model programmed into system 202. A possible peak hourwindow could be defined as morning time, 7˜8:30 a.m., which captures therush hour audience, the afternoon lunch traffic, could be 11:30 a.m. to1:30 p.m. and going home traffic, 4˜6:30 p.m. Such time may varydepending on the location, and can be adjusted by the administrator ofsystem 202. The main reason for this, is to capture the largestaudience. The bigger the audience, the bigger the customer base thatuses system 202 for their searching purposes. Regular non-peak hourplaylist are valued a nominal or regular charge fee against the externaladvertisers.

According to the embodiment, a digital signage unit can go to a sleepmode. The wake mode is when the digital signage system powers up, andthe display screen turned on. These modes are controlled by the businessagents. Based off the available wake time, determines how much amonetary reward a business agent gets. The smaller window of wake timecan yield a lesser monetary reward gain and vice versa. However, thewake time is capped at a certain number depending on the businessindustry, which means if a business agent selects 24 hours, anddepending on the industry, system 202 automatically calculate the payoutreward based off a maximum hour, example 20 hours maximum limit. Again,the reward is based off an internal pricing model programmed into system202.

FIG. 10 shows a digital signage unit with a recognizable marketingphrase embedded on the digital information content. The digital signageunit is designed to be light weight and an acceptable shape and colorthat fits most business premises. The size of the digital signage unitsare presumed to not obstruct the flow of business of a business premisebut still yield positive results in providing good exposure of digitalinformation content. The digital signage unit may consist of a centralprocessing unit located on a main board. The main board is also equippedwith a video processing unit which ultimately transmit the video data tothe screen. The main board may also have an integrated sound card toenable sound to be played.

However, the sound feature is disabled by default, and depending on thelocation and function, the business agent may want to enable the soundfeature. A touch screen digitizer circuit is also required, to enableuser input. There may be no other form of user inputs, other than thetouch screen digitizer. The digital signage unit also is integrated witha sensor mechanism which will be explained in detailed later on in thisembodiment.

The digital signage unit also may have solid state drive which storesall the operating system, configuration files, and most importantly thedigital information content files. The digital signage unit may only beconfigured to function for the sole purpose of advertising anddisplaying selected information on the screen. The digital signage maynot have any other purpose other than the said task. Once a playlist isretrieved, depicted in block 502, the digital signage unit decodes theencrypted playlist, and saves it in the solid state drive, within adefined database table. The digital signage unit recompiles a localplaylist, based off the configuration files settings, taking intoaccount the wake time window, assigned by the business agent. If thereare any additional information such as weather, time, emergency alerts,the digital signage unit processes those requirements accordingly.Finally, one long playlist may be generated automatically and playedaccordingly. This action is reference in block 506. As mentioned beforeabout the peak time and non-peak time window, during computation of thebigger playlist, the system may also take into account of these timewindows, shown in block 508. It is made known that the digital signageunit may go through an infinite loop to retrieve fresh digitalinformation content from system 202. Ultimately the digital signage unitmay act as a slave computer, hence the one time setup registration andactivating process per digital signage unit.

The digital information content may comprised internal and externaladvertisement content. Internal content are playlist provided bybusiness agents, that chooses to advertise or relay information of theirown product and services. A business agent has the option to actuallyconfigure each digital signage unit to fully advertise for externaladvertisers, which means maximum reward payouts. Business agent may pickfrom any 25% intervals, starting from 0%, which means to fully advertiseonly for themselves, and to 100% which means to fully advertise forexternal advertisers. The default option is 50%, which means exactly 50%of the air time being played is internal advertising, and the remaininghalf is for external advertisers according to the embodiment.

Business agents are required to upload and manage the internal digitalinformation content from a web-based application, controlled by system202. Within the application of system 202, a business agent can providea simple worded description, title and location of the digital signageunit. An image option is also provided to simplify the indication of thelocation of the digital signage unit, to indicate the exact location ofthe digital signage unit. This is to avoid any confusion between otherdigital signage units. If the business agent decides to have more than asingle unit of the digital signage in the business premises, system 202is built in such that a list of all such digital signage unit is easilymanageable. A pull down list of every digital signage unit is providedto allow the business agent to focus on any digital signage device ownedand manage it.

In FIG. 6, it shows the process flow of an external advertisersutilizing system 202. The external advertiser user can sign in, shown inblock 604. Once the respective user gains access, the user has a choiceto use the internal built application in designing the digitalinformation content or directly upload a pre-made digital informationcontent which may be made by a third party program external to theentire system. The business agent can also utilize the same applicationfor their own internal content, there is an option for both users toselect whether they want internal or external or both advertising. Whena digital information content is uploaded, it is processed to determinethe length of time as well as converted to a standard video file formatto ease and standardize the digital signage design, which in this caseis flv or flash video format. Other possible formats can be used, it isjust a matter of using the correct codec and player to read that digitalmedia format on the client end.

In regards to an external content, system 202 calculates thecorresponding charges an external advertiser would have to pay for thatparticular digital information content they have uploaded. The systemcan then output the charges, prior the external advertiser accepting tothe transaction, which is shown in block 610. If the external advertiseraccepts the transaction, they may immediately be charged a monetaryvalue, which could be paid via a credit card, or bank account moneytransfer, which is depicted in block 611. If the external advertiserdecides to reject the transaction, the external advertiser is able toedit the submitted digital information content, in order to achieve thedesired charges. Practically the external advertiser can do this as manytimes as they see fit. However, every adjustment may or may not yield aprice change. If an advertisement was uploaded and an externaladvertiser has successfully made a payment for those charges, any newmodification may result in a price difference. If such modificationsyield a higher price, system 202 calculates the differences in thecharges, hence the external advertiser having only to pay thedifference. But if the modification appears to be a cheaper, there maybe no credit towards the event, since all processed transactions areconsidered final sale event, and no refund can be issued. Example forsuch can be, an external advertiser decides to extend the life span ofthe advertisement, which means more time is needed to play theadvertisement. This may result in a price increase towards thatrespective advertisement.

In block 608, the external advertiser is given several choices, whichultimately decide how and where the digital information content oradvertisement being transmitted. To explain block 608 better, FIG. 6A isderived, which further elaborate the intricate portion of the userselection ability in order to transmit the digital information contentto the masses or public. As mentioned before, the advertiser can chooseto upload a new digital information content. Also mentioned before, theadvertiser can either choose the internal application built within thesystem to generate the digital information content, which could eitherbe a static image or a moving video. On the other hand, users can choosea third party program to generate the digital media content, prioruploading into the system 202, this is depicted in block 618.Progressing into block 620, the advertiser can pick on the type ofindustry and sub industry compiled within two pull down fields. Byselecting the corresponding industry and sub industry, this decides howthe advertisement is compiled with the other pool of advertisementswithin system 202. Example of industries may be construction,manufacturing and retail trade. Corresponding listing relative to theindustries in order sequence are construction of building, foodmanufacturing, and gasoline stations.

Next in block 622, the advertiser picks on a simple title anddescription. Such information may not be known to the public but ratherto improve the advertiser's manageability of many other digitalinformation content that maybe present under the advertiser's account.In block 624, the advertiser can pick any of the pre-setup marketingphrase. This was initially setup during the login process, which wasdescribed in block 310. As a default, all registered business can haveonly one marketing phrase picked. However, as mentioned before, businessmay have the option to purchase additional marketing phrase if needed.Next in block 626, the advertiser decides on how long the advertisementon digital information content should be running for via a pull downcalendar menu. Obviously, the longer the advertisement is runningthrough the masses, the costlier it becomes. In 628, the advertiser hasthe choice to pick on popular time intervals to increase the frequencyof the advertisement being played. The choices can be in the peakmorning hours, peak afternoon hours or peak night hours. The assumptionfor peak hours is defined as the highest amount of traffic to occur. In630, the advertisers pick on the weight factor of that advertisement incomparison to other advertisement, he or she has uploaded into thesystem. This also decides the placement and frequency of theadvertisement among the other pool of advertisements.

Other than the time and frequency variables, one crucial variable thatmay affect the cost of the advertisement dramatically is the distance ofhow far the external advertiser would want the advertisement to betransmitted shown in 634. The distance factor mentioned here can be aselection of distance within a preconfigured distance in radius lengthusing the external advertiser business point as the central point ofreference. Selection such as advertising within a building, along astreet, 3 miles radius from the point of reference, higher increments ofdistance radius, entire state, multitude of states in a country, as wellas the final option of advertising in the whole country. The chargesvaries according to the distance selected, the further away theadvertisement has to travel from the epicenter of the business entity,the more expensive the charges be imposed. The derivation of cost isinfluenced by the number of business agents that the externaladvertisers use to advertise within that distance circle. Since eachbusiness agents is linked to a physical address location, hence a radialdistance of number of business agents can be calculated.

Once completed, the advertiser clicks on the save and submit buttonhence uploading all necessary information to system 202. System 202checks the validity of the file uploaded together with the completeduser selection and calculates a price for the advertisement based of thenumber of digital signage that is available to advertise externally aswell as all the variables selected in FIG. 6A. The advertiser must havea credit card or banking payment information on file within the systemin order to process the payment. This is crucial, as it allowsadvertisers to submit the digital information content or advertisementat a faster rate and minimize hassle.

Upon reviewing the charges, the external advertiser can proceed on toallow this most recent digital information content to be transmitted toother digital signage units. With this design scheme of the embodiment,external advertisers have the freedom to create and generate their owndigital information content or advertisement to be played on otherdigital signage units, without having to go through the owner of adigital signage unit. If the payment transaction does not go through,the advertisement is saved within the database but is not propagated toother digital signage devices owned by other business agents. In such acase, the advertiser does not have to go through all the hassle ofcompleting the online submission of the advertisement, but ratherreprocessing the transaction if the advertiser has sorted out thepayment issues which halted the initial transaction of the submittedadvertisement.

As a safeguard mechanism, all initial digital information content mustbe reviewed by the administrator of system 202, this step is shown inblock 612. After a certain review period, when an external advertiserhas deemed worthy of not imposing violating digital information content,the respective external advertiser's account may not be subjected tofuture reviews unless proven otherwise. The review period can beadjusted by the system administrator to whatever deemed necessary.Ultimately, once approved, system 202 generates a new playlist contentfor all affected digital signage units depicted in block 614, and readyto be retrieved by the designated digital signage units, mentionedbefore and shown in block 502.

The playlist generated can be stored in a serialized data format ontothe database server, which is located on the system 202. A serializedformat is required since it is a representation of a string data, inoppose to an array data, which is not database friendly. When a digitalsignage unit schedules a retrieval of updated playlist or configurationfiles, it sends the request to the system 202. System 202 authenticates,and once authenticated, encrypts the playlist data which are transmittedvia the internet to the targeted digital signage unit that initiated therequest. This is an ongoing process, depicted in FIG. 5, which shows anever ending task programmed into the digital signage unit.

To optimize the processing load for system 202, a unique header datablock, which consist of the last known downloaded timestamp of the datarequest is read by system 202. System 202 may filter this header file toidentify whether any new content is required to be transmitted to therespective digital signage unit. If no new content is required, itallows system 202 to efficiently move on to cater other requests fromother digital signage units. However, if there is a new media within theplaylist, system 202 can determine the difference between the last andnewest playlist and only transmitting on the difference of the playlist.

This whole process of this embodiment enables system 202 to be secured,which protects the system 202's automatic processes, in the playlistgeneration, down to the reward payout scheme. These process whichincludes the business user's registration into the system, purchasing aproprietary digital signage system that comprised the software thatallows the user to register, authenticate with the system 202, andeventually complete the task of the never ending task of playlistretrieval, computing the playlist schedule, and then displaying thecorresponding external and internal digital information content describeearlier, and reacting on any configuration settings such as the wake upand sleep mode operation, and finally embedment of the recognizablemarketing phrase onto each digital information content or advertisementare vital sequence process that completes the system 202.

Every digital information content that is being processed is played on asoftware player that which identifies two forms of data. First thedigital information content itself, second the recognizable marketingphrase. The latter point is being displayed on a separate softwarelayer, in respect to the first point, which is the digital informationcontent. This allows the business users, which can be the businessagents or the external advertisers to change any recognizable marketingphrase without affecting the digital information content oradvertisement original format. This process allows a faster processingtime by the system 202, which instead of recompiling and reformattingany uploaded digital media, such as an image file, or a video clip, tobe excluded in this process. However, a new playlist may need to begenerated so that a digital signage unit can have the newest informationof a playlist.

In FIG. 7, it shows the overview of when both parties are charged a fee,as well as when the business agent is rewarded a payout. System 202allows both parties to upload the digital information content into thesystem. The business agent can have the option to control how thedigital signage unit behaves in terms of only advertising forthemselves, or to mix advertise for themselves as well as for externaladvertisers, or to only advertise for other business. This step wasmentioned in earlier in the embodiment, as well as shown in block 318and 708.

If a business agent decides to not advertise for other businesses,meaning strictly self-advertising, they have to pay a maintenance fee,for utilizing the system 202 services. Again, such internaladvertisement is not to be transmitted to other digital signage unitsthat the business agents do not own. However, a business agent can alsochoose to be an external advertiser, hence holding dual roles in thissystem 202. It is to the business agent's advantage to also enable thedigital signage unit to accept external advertising to generate revenueto offset the monthly maintenance fee, which is depicted in block 706.When a dual role condition is assumed, that is, when the system 202combines both internal and external playlist and computes that bothplaylist will not interfere with one another, and still allows theprospective digital signage unit to perform adequately, this is shown inblock 718. The playlist can be compiled in such a way that competitiveindustries do not collide. For example, an auto body repair shop may notwant to advertise for another auto body repair body shop. Adistinguishing word or color coded display on the screen to separatebetween internal and external advertisements when such digitalinformation content is being played. This is to reduce any confusion itmay create among potential customers.

When a business agent assumes the mentioned dual roles, the factor thatmay decide the reward payout is primarily dependent on factors alreadymentioned in this embodiment, such as how much ratio the business agentallows for the external advertising versus the internal advertising ontotheir respective digital signage unit or units. Each digital signageunit is unique from each other, in the sense that if a business agentsdecides to own more than one digital signage unit, they can adjustindependent ratios of external advertising versus internal advertising.For example, if a digital signage unit is located in front of the mainentrance of the business premise, that digital signage unit could beconfigure to increase internal advertising more than externaladvertising, to indicate to potential customer that the store maybethrowing a promotion, thus attracting the potential customer intowalking into the business premise. Within the store, the business agentmay select to advertise more for external advertisers. However, thepayout system is confined in such that a business agent can only getrewarded to a maximum value point allowed by system 202 payout system.It is worth noting that owning more digital signage units per businessentity does not generate more monetary reward, if the quantity ofdigital signage units passes a saturation point.

Each digital signage unit is integrated with a sensor mechanism tomeasure the intensity or how much traffic the digital signage is exposedto. The sensor could be a motion sensor or an infrared sensor, whicheveris more effective depending on the environment. The digital signage unitmay count the number of unit of people that a digital signage unit isexposed to the digital signage. It should be made known that if thedigital signage unit is blocked, the image and/or the count is then sentback to the system 202, to be quantified. A higher density of morepopulated area, may yield a higher multiplier which increases the rewardpayout. This is indicated in block 812. Depending on the satisfactoryresults from determining a legitimate count, system 202 may beconfigured to deactivate this parameter, to ensure a certain profitmargin is met for the health of the business of system 202.

The charges towards the external advertisers are also proportional tothe number of digital signage units that are in the scope of distanceselection. This means, the more the quantity of digital signage units inthe chosen distance scope, the higher the charges for each advertisementcost. This is to ensure that the business agent is always rewarded aminimum payout amount, instead of a dilution effect, which discouragespotential business agents from participating with the current businessmodel of system 202. A simple mathematical relationship can be madehere, that the number of digital signage units in a region area, themore expensive the advertisement becomes. To make this happen, it isvital that the instant price calculation is performed right after theexternal advertiser submits an advertisement. System 202 can utilize allthe known variables mentioned earlier in this embodiment, to calculate afinal advertisement cost for each respective external advertiser. Thatbeing said, the price generation is based on a fair unbiased method,where the more people that is able to view the advertisement, the moreexpensive it becomes.

All rewards are taken from a fraction of all external advertisers feecharges that the system 202 computed earlier, which is shown in block710. The balance of the fraction shall be accredited as revenue towardssystem 202 business operations. A periodical reward payout to eachbusiness agents shall be made based upon the agreed disbursement duringregistration. Business agents can select a monthly, quarterly of a year,or any possible time span. The default payment method is the quarterlyof a year format. Both user category, the business agent or the externaladvertiser can view their balance history, profit generated or amountcharged, by login into the system 202 to retrieve these information.Depending on the nature of the business, if a reward payout is expected,the business agent can decide to receive the monetary reward via a checkor a direct deposit into a bank account.

FIG. 8 shows the daily operations of a digital signage unit. The digitalsignage unit is programmed to periodically retrieve a new set ofplaylist, could be peak and non-peak hours, as well as the configurationfiles. However, to enhance the speed and efficiency of the system,during the retrieval process, if system 202 computes that there are nonew playlist or configuration files, it may send back a messageindicating so. The digital signage unit can continue to play theappointed playlist within the wake up mode time window pointed out inblock 802.

One thing to point out here forward, it is fundamental for each digitalsignage unit to always seek for system 202 as a host. It is necessary toprogram all digital signage units to always look for a standard domainname, allowing the DNS server to always appropriately route allinformation request to the host domain name, which in this case issystem 202. Another side feature which may prove beneficial to abusiness agent is the sensor mechanism that is integrated into thedigital signage system. This sensor mechanism can be a motion detectionsensor or an infra sensor, to sense and pick up any possible incidentsof a human body that may be in front of the digital signage. Thisadditional safeguard method is necessary to ensure all digital signageunits are placed in a location that will prove beneficial, and servingits true purpose, which is to display information to the public. Thisportion of the process can be found in block 804 and 806.

In block 808, it shows when the digital signage unit randomly sends thetally number of a possible number of person that has evoke the sensors.An image maybe taken and relayed to system 202 for human interventiondepending on the business circumstances, shown in block 810. This methodcan be disabled by the business agents if they decide to protect theprivacy of the public, depicted in block 803. When disabled, thisdigital signage unit does not gain the extra multiplier factor to beconsidered for a higher reward, shown in block 814. Also if system 202administrators have decided that a possible cheat occur, then thebusiness agents may be blacklisted, and not getting a multiplier on hispayout reward, shown in block 814, or permanently disabling the businessagent ability to benefit from the system 202 reward program.

Another key feature of the embodiment is the recognizable marketingphrase. When a potential customer stumbles upon a digital informationcontent or advertisement, they can actually capture this phrase on thestandard location on the screen, in such that it does not distorts theoriginal message or information of the external advertisers. As depictedon FIG. 10, the words are on a possible yellow or bright color floatingbackground. The in-built web application where the user can upload theimages is done dynamically, so that the image or video preview canappear on the screen. This enables the user to adjust to the floatingbackground to make sure it does not block the advertisement. This ismentioned earlier, where the marketing phrase is to be on a second layerwhich is floating above the digital information content. Thestandardization of location on every digital signage unit is mandatoryto enable any potential customer to quickly recognize this phrase,depicted in block 904, and perform a back search for this phrase in thesystem 202 search feature, shown in block 906 and 908. Upon retrieval ofthe corresponding business entity that acted as an external advertiser,they can try to retrieve more information regarding this businessentity, or recommend and forward the information to other potentialcustomers. Thus creating an automatic movement for the advertisementitself. Information that can be gathered are subjected to definedparameter inputted by the business registrant into the database,consisting of the contact number, types of services, location,information of a web domain, location of business on a map API andimages of uploaded products and services.

The process of recognizing these phrases is implemented based upon thefact that potential customer may not have the time to write down a phonenumber, or even remember any long words that a digital informationcontent or advertisement is displaying. One could argue that potentialcustomers could take a photo via their mobile devices, but whether thepotential customer may be quick enough in doing so is another matter. Itis to the external advertisers advantage to actually pick and derive arecognizable marketing phrase that corresponds to their product orservice, more so phrases that are catchy, easy to remember. For example,if a museum wanted to advertise for an event that is going to be held,the museum, now acting as an external advertiser, can then select acatchy phrase such as, “Go Go Washington”.

It should be understood that this and other arrangement within thisembodiment described herein are for example purposes only. As such,those skilled in the art will appreciate that other possiblearrangements and derivation of other elements such as functions, orders,scheme, apparatus, groupings of functions, etc. can be utilized instead.In relationship to this embodiment, some elements may be omitted orremoved altogether to achieve the desired results.

The present disclosure is not to be limited in the context of theembodiments described in this application and method, which are intendedas illustrations of various features. Within the scope of thedisclosure, functionally equivalent apparatus and methods including tothose specified herein, will be apparent to those skilled in the artfrom the abovementioned descriptions. Any modifications and variationsare intended to fall within the scope of the claims attached here after,along with the entire scope of equivalents to which such claims areentitled.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for playing digital media content on anetwork-enabled signage device installed in a physical business premiseof a business agent, the method comprising: receiving, by a contentmanagement system, percentage participation information of externaladvertisers allowed by the business agent while setting up the signagedevice; receiving, by the content management system, external digitaladvertising content submitted by an external advertiser, wherein theexternal digital advertising content submitted by the externaladvertiser is related to a business other than the business of thebusiness agent; evaluating a cost value for advertising the externaldigital advertising content through the signage device, and displayingthe evaluated cost value to the external advertiser for approval;generating a new playlist including an internal playlist merged with anexternal playlist, a temporal length of the external playlist within thenew playlist being proportional to the percentage participationinformation allowed by the business agent, wherein the internal playlistis associated with internal digital advertising content relating to thebusiness of the business agent stored in a storage unit of the signagedevice, and wherein at least a portion of the external playlist isassociated with the external digital advertising content submitted tothe content management system by the external advertiser; transmittingthe new playlist and the external digital advertising content from thecontent management system to the signage device through a computernetwork; and playing, on the signage device, the internal digitaladvertising content and the external digital advertising content inaccordance with the new playlist.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thepercentage participation information is the percent of time that theexternal digital advertising content is displayed as a percentage of thetotal playlist time including both the internal digital advertisingcontent and the external digital advertising content.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising calculating monetary rewards of the businessagent based at least in part on the percentage participationinformation.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determininghuman traffic exposed to the signage device using a sensor of thesignage device, and calculating monetary rewards of the business agentbased at least in part on the human traffic.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein evaluating the cost value for advertising the external digitaladvertising content comprises evaluating the cost value in accordancewith a distance from the physical business premise of the business agentto the external advertiser's physical business location.
 6. The methodof claim 1, wherein evaluating the cost value for advertising theexternal digital advertising content comprises evaluating the cost valuein accordance with one or more parameters selected from the groupconsisting of time span of the external digital advertising contentplayed on the signage device, specific hours during the day that theexternal digital advertising content is played on the signage device,frequency of the external digital advertising content being played onthe signage device, and prioritization factor among pool of digitalcontents to be played on the signage device.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein generating the new playlist comprises generating the newplaylist upon approval of the cost value by the external advertiser. 8.The method to claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the contentmanagement system through a web-based application programming interface(API), advertisement preferences of the external advertiser including adistance that the external advertiser wants to propagate the submittedexternal digital advertising content referencing the externaladvertiser's business location as a central point of distribution. 9.The method of claim 1, wherein evaluating a cost value comprisesevaluating the cost value in accordance with the advertisementpreferences of the external advertiser.
 10. The method of claim 1,further comprising receiving, by the content management system, arecognizable marketing phrase string entered by the external advertiser.11. The method of claim 10, further comprising transmitting therecognizable marketing phrase string along with the external digitalcontent, from the content management system to the signage devicethrough the computer network.
 12. The method of claim 11, whereinplaying the internal digital advertising content and the externaldigital advertising content comprises displaying the recognizablemarketing phrase string on the signage device simultaneously with theexternal digital advertising content at a software layer separate fromthat of the external digital content.
 13. A content management systemembodied in a computer hardware device communicable with a digitalsignage device through a computer network, the digital signage devicebeing installed in a physical business premise of a business agent,wherein the content management system is configured to: receivepercentage participation information of external advertisers allowed bythe business agent while setting up the signage device; receive externaldigital advertising content submitted by an external advertiser, theexternal digital advertising content being related to a business otherthan the business of the business agent; evaluate a cost value foradvertising the external digital advertising content through the signagedevice, and transmit the evaluated cost value to the external advertiserfor approval; generate a new playlist including an internal playlist andan external playlist, a temporal length of the external playlist withinthe new playlist being proportional to the percentage participationinformation allowed by the business agent, wherein the internal playlistis associated with internal digital advertising content relating to thebusiness of the business agent, and wherein at least a portion of theexternal playlist is associated with the external digital advertisingcontent submitted by the external advertiser; and transmit the newplaylist and the external digital advertising content to the signagedevice through the computer network; and instruct the signage device toplay the internal digital advertising content and the external digitaladvertising content in accordance with the new playlist.
 14. The systemof claim 13, wherein the percentage participation information is thepercent of time that the external digital advertising content isdisplayed as a percentage of the total playlist time including both theinternal digital advertising content and the external digitaladvertising content.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein the contentmanagement system is further configured to calculate monetary rewards ofthe business agent based at least in part on the percentageparticipation information.
 16. The system of claim 13, wherein thecontent management system is further configured to determine humantraffic exposed to the signage device using a sensor of the signagedevice, and calculate monetary rewards of the business agent based atleast in part on the human traffic.
 17. The system of claim 13, whereinthe cost value for advertising the external digital advertising contentis evaluated in accordance with one or more parameters selected from thegroup consisting of a distance from the physical business premise of thebusiness agent to the external advertiser's physical business location,time span of the external digital advertising content played on thesignage device, specific hours during the day that the external digitaladvertising content is played on the signage device, frequency of theexternal digital advertising content being played on the signage device,and prioritization factor among pool of digital contents to be played onthe signage device.
 18. The system of claim 13, wherein the contentmanagement system is further configured to receiving a recognizablemarketing phrase string entered by the external advertiser, transmit therecognizable marketing phrase string along with the external digitalcontent to the signage device through the computer network, and instructthe signage device to display the recognizable marketing phrase stringsimultaneously with the external digital advertising content at asoftware layer separate from that of the external digital content.
 19. Anetwork-enabled digital signage device installed in a physical businesspremise of a business agent, the digital signage device comprising astorage unit for storing internal digital advertising content relatingto a business of the business agent and external digital advertisingcontent relating to a business of an external advertiser other than thebusiness agent, wherein the digital signage device is configured to:receive, through a computer network, a playlist including an internalplaylist and an external playlist, a temporal length of the externalplaylist within the playlist being proportional to percentageparticipation information of external advertisers allowed by thebusiness agent, wherein the internal playlist is associated with theinternal digital advertising content, and wherein at least a portion ofthe external playlist is associated with the external digitaladvertising content of the external advertiser; and play the internaldigital advertising content and the external digital advertising contentin accordance with the playlist.
 20. The device of claim 19, furthercomprising a sensor configured to determine human traffic exposed to thesignage device.
 21. The device of claim 19, wherein the digital signagedevice is further configured to receive, through the computer network, arecognizable marketing phrase string entered by the external advertiser,and display the recognizable marketing phrase string simultaneously withthe external digital advertising content at a software layer separatefrom that of the external digital content.